Hilo: Big Island's big city

April 22, 2007

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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The color purple: The frequent rainfall in and around Hilo means it is a wonderful place to see tropical flowers, unlike the more popular, but drier, Kona side of the Big Island. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The office: Register Travel Editor Gary Warner files a story from the porch of Shipman House, where Wi-Fi is available.

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beautiful route: Hilo's Banyan Drive is lined with huge old trees planted by visiting celebrities over the years. Most were planted in the 1930s. Many of the names are no longer famous, but many visitors would recognize the placards for Yankee slugger Babe Ruth and aviator Amelia Earhart.

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Sales site: At the corner of Mamo Street and Kamehameha Avenue, in downtown Hilo, over 100 local farmers and craftsmen sell their produce, wares and tropical flowers in a year-round outdoor market open Wednesdays and Saturdays. PHOTOS: BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE REGISTER

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Best B&amp;B Bet: The Shipman House, built in 1899, is a top choice for staying in Hilo. Many museum-quality furnishings remain, including a 1912 Steinway piano once played by Hawaii's last queen.

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Nixon planting: Along Banyan Drive, Orange County residents might be interested in seeing the banyan tree installed by Yorba Linda native Richard Nixon. Some of the signs are in a state of disrepair. PHOTOS: BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE REGISTER

The color purple: The frequent rainfall in and around Hilo means it is a wonderful place to see tropical flowers, unlike the more popular, but drier, Kona side of the Big Island. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

CHECKLIST:

GETTING THERE: Hilo, once a major hub of Hawaii, does not have nonstop flights from Southern California. Round-trip fares from Southern California range from $400 to $800, depending on the season (summer fares are highest).

• Three airlines fly between Honolulu and Hilo. Traditional rivals Aloha and Hawaiian have been joined by Go!, affiliated with Arizona's Mesa Air Group, which has set off a price war that has some fares as low as $74 round-trip. Consider flying into Honolulu and buying a separate ticket for your inter-island hop.

HANG YOUR HAT:The Shipman House. I stayed in this rambling Victorian house refurbished as a bed-and-breakfast. 131 Kaiulani St.; 800-627-8447.

• Waterfalls Inn Bed & Breakfast is another good B&B choice in Hilo, very close to the Shipman House. 240 Kaiulani St.; 808-969-3407.

• The Hawaii Convention and Visitors Bureau covers all the islands, including the Big Island; 800-464-2924 or www.gohawaii.com.

"The Volcano of Mauna Loa was given a grand exhibition of Natural Pyrotechnics. The eruption is described as the most extensive which has taken place in these Islands. The last accounts fears were entertained that the beautiful town of Hilo would be destroyed by the molten river, which was coursing its way hitherward. The scene is described as one of awful sublimity and grandeur."

- The New York Times, April 28, 1852

It is only fitting that the first significant mention of Hilo in America's newspaper of record was of its impending doom.

Sharing space with three volcanoes, rocked by earthquakes, swamped by tidal waves, infested with diseased bugs, and under the very real threat of attack by a foreign power, Hilo has endured much hardship over the decades.

But what turned Hawaii's "second city" into not even a second thought for most mainland visitors was not a catastrophe, but something that happens every week, sometimes every day.

In Hilo, it rains. A lot. The city is the rainiest major city in the United States, averaging 129 inches a year.

So when millionaire Laurance Rockefeller opened his luxurious Mauna Kea resort in 1965 on the sun-baked Kona side of the Big Island, the eyes (and wallets) of tourists turned west.

Hilo was left behind. A quieter, slower, less showy slice of Hawaii. Where every store isn't hawking T-shirts and timeshares, the best beds aren't in hotels but in B&Bs, and the rain is loved for creating rushing waterfalls and lush gardens.

"Being from the Seattle area, we can handle a little rain," said visitor Peter Berg of Coupeville, Wash. "Everything is just so green and beautiful on this side of the Big Island."

DRIVE BY

I usually start my trip to Hilo by cruising along Banyan Drive. The pavement buckles a bit from the roots of the huge old banyan trees that were planted in Hilo's tourism heyday by visiting celebrities. There are trees installed by Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart, but you can measure Hilo's fall from favor by the fact that one of the last trees planted was by Richard Nixon. Many of the nameplates are sadly in need of repair.

When I first visited Hilo two decades ago, the hotels along Banyan Drive were also the main place to stay in town. But while the Kona side of the Big Island boasts many four-diamond AAA resorts, Hilo's offerings top out at two diamonds. Some of the hotels don't even meet the Auto Club's minimum standards anymore.

Hilo has always been a center of Japanese culture in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the once-famous Suisan public fish market has closed. But another good stop is the 30-acre park just beyond Banyan Drive. Although it is named after Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, the garden is laid out in a traditional Japanese style with gazebos and a teahouse. A bridge takes strollers out to Coconut Island, with pretty views of the city across the harbor.

EARTH AND WAVES

Mauna Loa and Hilo Bay are the source of much viewing pleasure today, but each has dealt punishing blows to Hilo over the years. The volcano has threatened the city many times. In the 19th century, the San Francisco Call reported that a lava flow headed for Hilo was stopped by a princess who made an offering of a pig. In 1935, the U.S. Army actually bombed part of the volcano to try to redirect lava away from Hilo. Earthquakes frequently rumble through the area, the latest just last year, though damage was heavier on the Kona side of the island.

The most serious harm to Hilo has come from the sea. In 1946, a tsunami from Alaska swept across the bay and smashed the city, killing 96. Hilo was just starting to recover when another massive tidal wave pulsing up from Chile slammed ashore in 1960, killing 61. Thirty-foot-long chunks of bayside curbing were found up to 350 feet inland. Hilo's downtown was rebuilt farther from the bay to lessen the impact of future tsunamis.

The story of the sea and the volcanoes that have shaped Hilo's history are told in two museums.

The Pacific Tsunami Museum, in an old bank building on Kamehameha Avenue, explains how the waves are generated and why Hilo's geography has made the city so susceptible to the killer waves. The exhibition includes a half-hour video of residents' recollections of the tsunamis. Exhibitions include one on the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Imiloa Astronomy Center on Hilo's University of Hawaii campus tells the story of Mauna Kea, especially the astronomical work done atop what is the highest mountain in the world, if you count total height from the sea floor to the summit (much of it is under water). You also can get information on visiting the observatory.

ON THE TOWN

Downtown Hilo is fun to stroll because, unlike Waikiki in Oahu or Lahaina on Maui, it's a mix of shops that cater to tourists and locals.

"It reminds me of how Hawaii used to be," said Adrienne Skinner of Larchmont, N.Y. "I came through for the first time in 1956. There were no Wal-Marts in Hawaii back then. I come back to Hilo because it isn't a tourist area. If it rains, there are plenty of consignment shops to keep me busy."

Downtown has become trendier in recent years.

One famous spot is Sig Zane Designs, whose offbeat textiles have been popular well beyond the Big Island.

There are even a few fashionable restaurants like Kaikodo that offer Pacific-rim fusion food. But you'll usually find me out at Seaside Restaurant, whose tasty aholehole fish is grown in the aqua farm next door. It's not to everyone's taste. My traveling companion opted for the opakapaka, a Hawaiian version of snapper.

B&B HAVENS

I've been to Hilo five times and this was the first visit where I didn't check into a hotel. Instead I turned inland to Kaiulani Street, home to bed and breakfasts that are the best choice among limited options for visitors to the city.

I stopped by Waterfalls Inn Bed & Breakfast, which I found charming and relaxing, with its five rooms arrayed around a fern-drenched garden with waterfalls.

But I opted to stay down the street at the Shipman House, a rambling, white Victorian-era mansion that also has five rooms. It's owned by Barbara Andersen, a descendent of the original owner.

"We're not in competition with Kona," Andersen said. "We don't want to be Kona. We don't need the chain stores to take over."

The upside of the Shipman House is that it is filled with plantation-era memorabilia of museum quality that is among the best I've seen in the islands.

The downside for some visitors might be the feeling that you are staying in someone's home that is also a museum, with certain areas off-limits and lots of look-don't-touch spots.

As an amateur historian, I loved it. My favorite spot was the wide, curving porch, where I could pick up the Wi-Fi signal on my laptop. It was a wonderful juxtaposition of the 19th and 21st centuries.

NATURE ON THE SIDE

Even if you aren't into Hilo's slightly worn, tropical-urban scene, it's a better choice than Kona for some visitors simply because of its proximity to the island's natural wonders.

From the city, it's a shorter drive up to the town of Volcano and the lava flows out into the Pacific Ocean out of the Kilauea volcano. Hilo also is closer to the famous northeast coast waterfalls. Rainbow Falls is the closest, but make the trip to Akaka Falls State Park.

Also worth the journey is the sparsely populated Waipio Valley, one of the most beautiful spots on the Big Island.

Time and nature have taken their toll on Hilo. But what they have left behind is something very rare in the islands these days: a piece of real Hawaii.

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